War Dog and Marginalized Populations
Two short stories by Malcolm Cross
You can’t take the human element out of war, but try telling that to the corporate thinktank that handed guns to gengineered attack dogs. In these two SF short stories from the world of San Iadras, find out what happens when the cloned supersoldiers of the future are emancipated, integrated into society, and treated like human beings — whether they like it or not.
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War Dog: Eschowitz Estian, a genetically engineered dog-soldier, is unleashed on the world… but he’s only seven years old. Martial training is abruptly replaced with family life when he’s freed and emancipated, but being expected to act like a normal child isn’t something his training has prepared him for. In a world where he can become anyone except the soldier he was born to be, growing up and finding his place will be a war, but not the one he was designed for.
(~15 000 words)
Marginalized Populations: Scheuen Estian’s adoptive parents always called him ‘Shaun’, because they couldn’t fit his real name into their lives. They couldn’t fit his real nature into their lives, either. But he can make a place for himself, in the society of his clone brethren, and in societies broken by repression rocked by a crowdfunded civil war that need him to be exactly what he was made to be: a soldier.
(~6 500 words)
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War Dog and Marginalized Populations is available from BadDogBooks in multiple formats (ePub, Mobi, PDF), or on Kindle from Amazon (US), (UK).
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War Dog originally published in New Fables 2010, from Sofawolf Press
Cover art by Meesh